Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her: “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.” As she took her last breath, for she was dying, she named him Ben-Oni (“son of my sorrow”), but his father named him Benjamin. (Genesis 35:16–18)

Jacob had a great love, Rachel, and worked seven years to marry her. However, her father, Laban, tricked him and gave him his older daughter, Leah, instead. Jacob had to work another seven years to marry Rachel. From this marriage came Joseph and Benjamin, who were Jacob’s favorite sons. Benjamin was born after a difficult childbirth that caused his mother’s death.

This scene represents Jacob as an old and tired man next to a boy. This image could be the representation of two things: the loneliness of the patriarch upon learning about the supposed death of his favorite son, Joseph, or the sadness of sending his son Benjamin to the pharaoh’s minister so that his older sons could obtain more grain and have certain alleged wrongdoings forgiven.